Glacial retreat and its impact

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Glacial retreat and its impact on hydrological
processes on the Third Pole
Yao Tandong Institute of Tibetan Plateau
Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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• July 24, 2008
• NATURE

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What is the Third Pole Region?

• The Third pole region is the high Pole region
  extends from the Karakorum, Pamir Plateau and
  Hindu-Kush in the west to the Hengduan Mountain
  in the east, from the Himalayas in the south to
  the Qilian and kunlun Mountains in the north,
  with the largest two plateaus, the Tibetan
  Plateau and the Qinghai Plateau in the central.
• The Third Pole region covers an area more than 5
  million square kilometers, including the highest
  parts such as the Tibetan Plateau (more than 1.2
  million square kilometers), the Qinghai Plateau
  (more than 1.1 million square kilometers) and the
  Himalayas ( close to 300 thousand square
  kilometers)

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Three largest ice masses on the earth including
Antarctica region, Arctic region and Third Pole
region
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Glacier distribution on the Third Pole
There are more than 100,000 km2 of glacier on
the Third Pole, including about 50,000 km2 on the
Tibetan Plateau. The other glaciers are,
respectively, in the Himalayas, Karakorum and
Hindu-kush.
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Glacier distribution on Tibetan and Qinghai
Plateau
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A bird eye view of Puruogangri Icefield
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Glaciers on the Third Pole are extensively
retreating

• Retreating glaciers reaches 80-95 of the
• total glaciers
• Small glaciers are retreating more rapid than
• large glaciers
• Some small glaciers have already disappeared

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1933
2006
Ata Glacier
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Glacier No. 12 in Yarlung Tsangpo
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• Amplitude of glacial retreat in the marginal
  regions is larger than those inside the interior
  regions
• Glacial area retreated by 7 in the 40a before
  2000, and by 5 in the past 10a
• Glacial retreat in the past 10a is accelerating.

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Mass Balance monitoring
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Mass balance in southeast(mm w.e.)
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Major impact

• Glacial Lake Expansion Flood (GLEF) and
  Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) induced by
  glacial retreat is a severe social problem on the
  Third Pole region.

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Only on the Tibetan and Qinghai Plateau, there
are more than 1000 lakes, most are supplied by
glacial melting water there are more than 3000
glacial terminus lakes which are directly at
glacial terminus
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Namuco lake
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Lagu Glacial Lake
1990
2000
1980
Changes of Lagu Glacier
2.22km2
0.71km2
0.42km2
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• From 2000 to 2005,the area of the glacial
  lake increased from 2.22 km2 to 2.55 km2, about
  15 in
• 5 years

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2006.5.4
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Variation of YIbuchaka (1980-2001)
93.79km2
1980
1990
2000
93.79km2
66.16km2
162.26km2
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1990
1970
2000

4.3km2
0.68km2
4.3km2
0.71km2
1.05km2
1.6km2
Variations of Dongguanla Co
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Tibetan Plateau Environmental Changes and
adaptation (TECA)
Tibetan Plateau Observation and Research
Platform (TORP) The Third Pole Environment
(TPE)workshop, August 16-18, 2009, Lhasa Fifth
International Conference on Tibetan Plateau,
August 11-14, 2009, Beijing
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Workshop on environmental, glacial and
hydrological processes and related consequences
on the Third Pole region
1. Environmental changes since 2000 years
ago 2. Water cycles and the Indian Monsoon 3.
Glacial retreat and glacial mass balance 4.
Hydrological processes and related
hazards August 16-18, 2009, Lhasa
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Thanks for your attention!